Unknowing
by badly-knitted
Summary: Jack always stays at the Hub after the others leave for the night; he always thinks he's the only one there, but he's wrong. Written for the prompt 'Torchwood, Night Shift' at fic promptly. Set pre-series.


**Title:** Unknowing

 **Author:** badly-knitted

 **Characters:** Jack, mentions Owen, Suzie, Tosh, Ianto  & Lisa

 **Rating:** PG

 **Spoilers:** Cyberwoman.

 **Summary:** Jack always stays at the Hub after the others leave for the night; he always thinks he's the only one there, but he's wrong.

 **Word Count:** 547

 **Written For:** juliet316's prompt 'Torchwood, author's choice, Night Shift' at fic_promptly.

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own Torchwood, or the characters. They belong to the BBC.

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 **Guest:** Gasp! That would be sacrilege! Coffee machines make coffee. Ianto makes tea the tried and tested old fashioned way, with a kettle and a teapot, and it's as good as his coffee ;)

This is linked to my chaptered fic Through Time and Space.

Thank you!

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 **sandysan2013:** Well, there's only one human being in possesssion of his very own TARDIS, who has a thing for coffee ;)

Part of my Through Time and Space 'Verse.

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OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

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Torchwood has never been a nine to five job; there are times when the team find themselves working twenty-four hour days with only brief naps snatched here and there. Still, whenever possible, Jack makes sure the others go home at night so they can at least have some semblance of a life on top of getting some much-needed sleep.

The Hub can't be left empty though; Rift alerts can happen at any time and the Rift Predictor, as good as it is, still isn't perfected. Even on nights that no Rift activity is expected, there's still a chance the Predictor has missed something, so someone needs to be there, just in case of emergencies. Jack's confident that Tosh will iron out all the bugs eventually; it'll just take time, so until then, he takes the night shift to spare the rest of the team. It makes sense; after all, he needs much less sleep than they do.

Contrary to popular belief, Jack does in fact sleep, but he can easily get by with a couple of hours a night and can comfortably go for days without sleeping at all, when necessary. Or when the nightmares are particularly bad.

Most evenings he says goodnight to his team as one by one they leave. Owen is usually first out the door. Suzie used to hang around for a chat, but these days she often leaves with Owen or shortly after.

It used to be Tosh who stayed the latest and sometimes it still is, but since Ianto joined the team he's often the one that lingers after the others have gone. He uses the opportunity to clean up without having to work around them, or takes some last-minute filing down to the archives and fixes Jack one final coffee. Jack doesn't mind; it's always pleasant having company for a bit longer and it gives him a chance to flirt. He's pretty sure the gorgeous Welshman is interested, just a bit reserved. Given time, Jack's sure he'll persuade his new employee to stay even later. It won't do him any harm; as Ianto isn't a field agent, it doesn't seem as important to make sure he goes home at a decent hour. Jack suspects that like him, Ianto has more than his share of nightmares, considering he lived through Canary Wharf, so he's happy to let his general support officer do as he pleases; he can understand if Ianto's sometimes reluctant to surrender to sleep.

Even so, the Welshman has usually left by midnight, often disappearing without Jack noticing. No doubt he leaves through the garage to avoid disturbing Jack with the sirens on the cog door. Ianto doesn't own a car, claims he doesn't live far enough away to warrant the expense and he'd hardly ever use it anyway; public transport is more practical in the city. Jack supposes he has a point.

So night after night, Jack takes on the night duty, secure in the belief that he's the only living human in the Hub. He has no idea how completely wrong he is in his assumptions. Deep in the bowels of Torchwood's secret base, Ianto Jones is busy tending to the needs of his half-converted girlfriend, and if Ianto has his way, Jack will never find out.

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The End


End file.
